Huey tops Ciszek in semis

With national pride at stake, the hometown crowd in Hong Kong was going bananas. Former Virginia star Treat Huey, who is from Northern Virginia, was a long way from home.

Yes, you could say that the setting of today’s rematch at the Glenmore Country Club between Huey and Martin Sayer will be a lot different than when they last faced each other during Davis Cup play.

Back in March, Huey, whose mother is Filipino, was representing the Philippines. Sayer, a former Radford standout, was playing for his native Hong Kong. In a best-of-five-sets match that was played on a hard court, Sayer won in straight sets.

Now, the two meet again — in the finals of the $10,000 Virginia State Open Clay Court Championships at 10 a.m. today.

“Here, it’s pretty much my home court,” said Huey, laughing, “so hopefully I can get some revenge.”

On Sunday, both players looked in good form. Huey, the No. 1 seed in the tournament and the defending champion in singles and doubles, easily disposed of seventh-seeded Michal Ciszek, 6-3, 6-2.

The second-seeded Sayer defeated Santiago Villegas, 6-1, 6-2.

Huey said his victory was tougher than it may have looked.

“He’s a great player,” Huey said. “I think only two or three years ago he was in the 400s in the world. He’s a good player still for sure. He gave me some trouble in both sets, but I served real well.”

“He’s younger and in way better shape,” said the 31-year-old Ciszek. “He’s just better. He was just too good. Maybe next time it will be different.”

The match featured a number of lengthy points. One of the best occurred late in the second set. Leading 4-2, Huey made an unbelievable get on a drop shot, then backpedaled at break-neck speed for a backhand smash of a lob.

The point was a clear illustration of Huey’s improved fitness — something he says he has worked hard on since turning pro. The 23-year-old left-hander shares a house with former teammate Somdev Devvarman in Keswick. And, oh yes, the house has a tennis court.

“Now I don’t really have to worry about school work too much,” said Huey, a 2008 UVa alum who holds the school record for career doubles victories, “and I’ve gotten a lot fitter just from playing and training all day, every day, with my focus just being on tennis and getting my body really fit.

“That has definitely helped my game.”

When you consider that Huey has played seven matches in the last two days (singles, doubles and mixed doubles), the training will likely help him today on the slow clay at Glenmore.

“On clay, I feel like hopefully I can run down a lot more balls and just play my game and make him play a lot more because he just blew me off the court last time, hitting winners all over,” Huey said. “I just have to come out and play my game and see how I do.”

On the women’s side of the tournament, Tatsiana Uvarova repeated as champion. Uvarova beat former Virginia Commonwealth teammate and fellow Russian Olga Borisova, 5-7, 6-1, 6-3, in a tightly-contested match.

“I was just patient,” said Uvarova, who had beaten Borisova on two previous occasions, “and tried to make less mistakes — that was it.”